Magit, Hansen win, big wins for ESUSD challengers

In a terrific turnout, 70.71 percent of Mono County voters showed up at the polls today. That means that the final vote can be used as a pretty accurate mirror of sentiment, even though we disagree, in some cases, with the rest of California.

Superior Court Judge
Mark Magit will be Mono County’s new Superior Court Judge, after taking home 53.6 percent of the vote, compared to Randy Gephart’s 46.4 percent.
“I’m humbled and honored,” said Magit late Tuesday night. “The amount of positive feedback, the expressions of support. It’s really humbling. It’s going to be a shift in my life for sure for the better and I am going to step up to meet that challenge.”

District 4
Tim Hansen will be North County’s new District 4 Supervisor with 57.5 percent of the vote, following a long run-off battle with Tim Fesko, who received 42.5 percent of the vote. “Time to get to work,” he said Tuesday night, “I am humbled by the confidence people have in me.”

Eastern Sierra Unified School District
The Eastern Sierra Unified School District is going to see some big changes, with both incumbents on the ballot defeated by large margins.

Coleville-based incumbent Randy Gilbert lost to challenger Bob Tems, with 40.9 percent of the vote to Gilbert’s 29 percent of the vote. Another challenger, John Peters, also bypassed Gilbert, with 30.1 percent of the vote, but Tems will be the school board member.

Benton’s ESUSD incumbent, Ann Aylesworth, also lost handily to challenger Baumann. Baumann took home 68.9 percent of the vote to Aylesworth's 31 percent.

Baumann, Tems and recently appointed board member Gabe Segura have been critical of the board and of Superintendent Don Clark’s handling of the budget deficit that forced the district to terminate about a quarter of its staff and teachers. Along with outspoken Clark critic Doug Northington, it is clear the new board will be a bit different than the past board.

Mammoth Lakes

Mammoth Fire Commissioners will be Richard Good and Brent Peterson winning 31 percent and 44.5 percent of the vote respectively.

The Mono County preliminary report (all votes in, pending certification only) shows we run against the state trend, preferring Republicans Meg Whitman for Governor and Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senator.

On the other political hand, we put Democrat Ken Cooley in the lead for State Senator 1st District, to runoff against Republican Ted Gaines. At this time, we don’t know whether the rest off the district agrees with us.

We posited our own positions on some locally powerful propositions, and we don’t know yet whether the rest of the state agrees.